Some welcome shade at the allotment

Having overhanging trees on the allotment is not what everyone wants and I have often complained about it, wishing we could have them cut down. But during this spell of hot weather the shade they provide has been quite welcome.

It has been too hot to work in the garden, so one day we escaped to the allotment to do some work under the big sycamore tree. We call this area the woodland garden. We can't grow anything here because of the tree, the slope and all the roots in the soil. When the grandchildren were younger it was their den. We now have a sitting area and a bug hotel there and use some of the space for storage. There are also a couple of little flower beds where I grow woodland and shade loving plants.

It was all very dry looking, a lot of the elder and privet needed cutting back and the weeds were beginning to take over.

It was a little cooler working under the tree and by the time we had cut every thing back we could actually see the sky.

I'd  thought I would get some wood chippings to cover the ground when we'd finished, but lucky for us we didn't need to buy any as someone dumped a big pile of them for the allotment holders to help themselves to. It looks much better now. I left our grandson's old den there, I couldn't get in there myself but I rather like it.

   

Our new garden project 6--sorting out the bottom border

 Since we moved into our new house last year and started working on the garden our problems have been always about the drainage. Here at the top of the town many of the houses around suffer from the same problems as us in their gardens. The water runs down the fields and through our gardens, which are of clay soil. We had a really wet winter and often as I walked around I could see other gardens with the same problems as ours--puddles of water everywhere.

We sorted out one part of the garden with a raised seating area and raised beds, but the bottom borders were still causing a problem. When it rained the water collected down at the bottom. Richard had put drains in, but we still had the water there. We have had a really wet winter and every time it rained we saw the rain was collecting in a big puddle at the bottom of the garden. 

The bottom of the garden last year 

Richard is not one to be defeated and he spent a lot of time making plans for this part of the garden. I had thought I would quite like to have a path around the lawn. This was a good idea as when the lawn was wet it just became a muddy mess, so to have a path to walk on would make things easier. It would stop the lawn getting messed up when tending the borders. Early in the year when walking across the lawn, I slipped on the wet grass and went flat on my back, injuring my ankle. It was not a good idea to walk on the wet grass. 

Richard came up with a plan to raise the level at the bottom of the garden with sleepers and make a path with a gravel base and then topped with slate chippings to match the seating area and also to raise the lawn slightly down at the bottom end.

Making a start, levelling and raising up the front of the border

 I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about his plans to start with. I thought they were--well, big plans and hoped he could cope with the work involved.

The path starting to take shape

Richard doesn't always have a proper plan to work from, he tends to work things out as he goes along and I'm always told 'Don't worry, it will be fine'. As he worked on the project I could gradually see how his plans were working.

First layer of gravel on the path

Slate chippings in place and the lawn re levelled

The turf arrives

Laying the turf

I worked on the planting schemes in the bottom border thinking about the wet soil. So the plants were all those which would be happy growing in damp conditions. There is also a bit of shade from the fence so that was considered too. The border had been planted in the autumn with a rowan tree, a twisted willow, a cornus and a physocarpus. In between these I planted astilbe, ligularia, grasses which liked wet conditions, marsh marigold, hardy geraniums, trollius, iris, candelabra primula, and spring bulbs to name a few. It's quite a long border so there was plenty of space to fill. I had brought some of the plants as cuttings from the bog garden at the allotment. 

All that work was done earlier this year, now it's finished and we are into summer. We are in a hot spell. We haven't had any proper rain for weeks so we can't tell if raising the level of the garden has worked. The border is looking lovely and we often sit admiring it. Plants are coming into flower daily and it is a joy to see.